New Swiss commercial boss wants to reduce the number of contract flights
Published: Saturday, May 11th 2024, 07:10
Updated At: Sunday, May 12th 2024, 01:59
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The new Swiss Head of Commercial Heike Birlenbach wants to reduce the number of outsourced flights currently operated by the two airlines Helvetic Airways and Air Baltic on behalf of Swiss in the long term. These flights, known as "wet leases" in technical jargon, currently account for around a third of the summer flight schedule in Europe.
"We currently have a lot of wet-lease aircraft in operation," said the German at a meeting with journalists at Swiss headquarters in Kloten this week. The 57-year-old took up her post at the beginning of the year. She took the opposite route to her predecessor: Birlenbach came to Swiss from the Lufthansa Group, while Tamur Goudarzi Pour moved to Lufthansa.
The reason for the many wet lease flights, where Swiss hires aircraft and crew from other airlines, is the engine problem at the manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. Because many Swiss aircraft are affected by this, "we are unable to fly many of our own aircraft as we would like," said Birlenbach.
Without wet lease Swiss would have to cancel routes
"If we didn't have a wet lease, we would have to cancel a significant proportion of our continental routes. This would also have a major impact on intercontinental routes, where we would also be unable to operate many flights," said Birlenbach. For Swiss, however, the stability of the network and the quality of connections are at the top of the priority list.
Helvetic Airways and Air Baltic are only slightly less popular with customers than Swiss. Customer satisfaction for the two contract airlines is 72 percent, compared to 76 percent for Swiss, said Birlenbach.
"We want to fly with fewer wet-lease aircraft in future. We would like to reduce this to the bare minimum," said the head of Swiss Commercial.
However, it would not be possible to do entirely without the contract aircraft. This is because they can be used to compensate for seasonal differences. "Summer and winter have very different peaks and troughs in demand. That's where the wet leases help us," said Birlenbach.
Incidentally, hiring third-party aircraft with the crews is not cheaper either, said the commercial boss in response to the often-heard accusation of wage dumping, because Air Baltic staff have much lower wages than Swiss employees. "It's not that we are saving money. We would prefer to do it without a wet lease, but that is not possible in the Swiss structure."
Only Helvetic in the future?
"I assume that we may only have one wet lease partner in the future," said Birlenbach. This could be the case from 2026, provided the engine problems with Pratt & Whitney are resolved by then.
"Helvetic will remain a strategic partner for Swiss in the future," said Birlenbach. "I'm not saying that Air Baltic is out of the picture."
The Latvian airline is a strategic partner for the Lufthansa Group. "We have a great need for wet lease capacity in the Group. We are looking at who has what needs within the Group. Air Baltic will continue to play an important role within the Lufthansa Group," said the Swiss manager.
Saving too much on food and drink
Deutsche intends to place a further focus on renewing its offering. Swiss has "a lot of catching up to do", particularly in economy class on long-haul routes. During the pandemic, Swiss reduced food and beverages there to zero and has since gradually rebuilt them.
"But from today's perspective, we haven't invested enough in the economy. Our customers are reporting this back to us," said Birlenbach: quality, quantity and selection are being criticized. A new food and beverage concept will be introduced this year.
Renovation of the long-haul aircraft
Swiss also intends to renew the cabin on its intercontinental routes. From May next year, the new Airbus A350 long-haul aircraft will gradually be introduced.
The renovation of the existing Airbus A330s will then begin in winter 2025/2026. The cabin conversion of all 14 aircraft of this type should take around 12 months if everything goes according to plan. Later, it will be the turn of the Boeing 777 fleet, which consists of 12 aircraft.
For the time being, Swiss is keeping the old Airbus A340 long-haul jets. "Of course, we would prefer to fly only modern aircraft," said Birlenbach. But the A340s will be kept for as long as necessary so that there are no gaps when the A330s and Boeing 777s are modernized. "We will then decide when to phase out the A340s," said the Head of Swiss Commercial.
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